medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Today (13. November) is the feast day of:
1) Arcadius, Paschasius, Probus, Eutychian, and Paulillus (d. 438?). We know about these martyrs of Africa from Prosper's _Chronicle_ and from a letter of the bishop of Cirta to Arcadius. The first four were military officers of Spanish origin; Paulillius was a young brother of Paschasius and Eutychian. They were all close to the Vandal king Genseric, who in 437 commanded them to become Arian. When they refused he dismissed them, had them exiled, and later had the first four executed and had Paulillius, spared on account of his tender years, condemned to slavery. They entered the historical martyrologies with Florus of Lyon, who placed them under 12. November. Usuard changed their day to today.
2) Brice (d. 444). According to Sulpicius Severus (_Dialogues_, 3. 15), B. (Brictius, etc.) was raised by St. Martin of Tours, whom he succeeded as bishop of that town. Attested since the time of bishop St. Perpetuus (d. 491), B.'s cult is closely connected with that of his mentor. Here's a panel painting of him from 1483, showing him bringing coals to the tomb of the deceased Martin:
http://www.mng.hu/en/collections/allando/181/oldal:3/962
For an explanation of this scene, see:
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/golden306.htm
And here they both are in a wooden sculpture of the same year, flanking St. John the Precursor:
http://www.mng.hu/en/collections/allando/181/oldal:3/961
A French-language account of the originally thirteenth-century église St.-Brice at Grisy (Calvados) in Normandy:
http://tinyurl.com/3ym9sq
Views (expandable):
http://tinyurl.com/2ujbz9
Here's a view of the thirteenth-/fourteenth-century église St.-Brice at Tournai (Doornik) in Belgian Hainaut:
http://tinyurl.com/3xjgro
NB: The main portal came from an older structure (later eleventh- or early twelfth-century).
An illustrated, French-language page on the fifteenth-/sixteenth-century église St.-Brice at A˙-Champagne (Marne) in Champagne:
http://montagnevaldor.cef.fr/EglAy.htm
Another view:
http://tinyurl.com/3akggo
3) Himerius of the Suze (d. 7th cent.?). H. (in French, Imier and Himier; in German, Immer; in the Latin of the Bollandists, Himerius erem. Susingensis) is a very poorly documented saint of the Bernese Jura. His cult is first attested from 884 when a chapel dedicated to him and said to have been built over his grave already existed at what is now St.-Imier (canton Bern/Berne). H. has a legendary Vita (BHL 3959; no witness earlier than the fifteenth century) that makes him a native of the Jura who became a hermit, went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, returned and established himself in the valley of the Suze (also Suse; in German, Schüss), evangelized in the surrounding territory, and died on 12. November of an unspecified year. Other chapels dedicated to him are recorded from nearby locales.
H.'s cult arose in an area that from the end of the tenth century onward belonged ecclesiastically to the diocese of Lausanne and territorially to the diocese of Basel. He was venerated in both dioceses as well as in those of Geneva, Besançon, and Mainz. The center of his cult remained at St.-Imier, where in the twelfth century a collegiate church was erected in his honor. Now the town's Reformed church, it was damaged by a fire in 1512 that caused a partial rebuilding, received a belltower in 1840, and underwent restorations in 1927-30 and in 1982. A French-language history of the building is here:
http://www.eglise-protestante.ch/?site=4&page=14
Some views:
http://flickr.com/photos/myfrenchwindow/2519111570/
http://tinyurl.com/5nvk6u
http://tinyurl.com/66gvss
http://tinyurl.com/6bncq5
http://tinyurl.com/6h8ebr
Thirteenth-century painting of Christ in the apse:
http://tinyurl.com/6sxbt9
Sixteenth-century vault painting of the Four Evangelists:
http://tinyurl.com/6cepn3
http://tinyurl.com/5lxo4t
Detail views of the Evangelists are here:
http://tinyurl.com/64vmaa
In time, St.-Imier seems also to have had a saint Longinus. But one should watch out for hagiographic falsehoods (to say nothing of bad puns).
4) Nicholas I, pope (d. 867). The Roman-born N., a trusted advisor of Benedict III, succeeded to the papacy in 858. His pontificate was marked by a series of actions in which he asserted papal primacy over his metropolitans, including John of Ravenna, Günther of Köln, and Theutgaud of Trier, all of whom he deposed, and Hincmar of Reims, whose own depositions and excommunications he reviewed and sometimes overturned. N. was equally successful in enforcing his will against Lothar II of Lotharingia, whose divorce and re-marriage to his mistress he refused to sanction even when under the threat of military invasion. With the Roman emperor in Constantinople, Michael III, he was strikingly unsuccessful, both in his campaign to secure the reinstatement of the patriarch Ignatius and in his attempt to influence the course of the church in Bulgaria.
N.'s letters are in PL 119. Those to the emperor Michael and other important East Romans are literary masterpieces: concise, vigorous, and eloquent. Light years above the chancery standard of his remaining correspondence, they are apparently the product of a writing team whose chief member was Anastasius, a former anti-pope and a future papal librarian (Anastasius Bibliothecarius).
In 868 N.'s immediate successor, Hadrian II, urged bishops attending a synod at Troyes to include N.'s name in the payers of the Mass. But whatever cult N. enjoyed then did not last. He entered the RM only in 1630.
5) Homobonus of Cremona (d. 1197). H. (in Italian, Omobono) was a merchant tailor of Cremona, married, exceptionally charitable, and extraordinarily upright. His reputation for holiness was such that he was canonized a mere two years after his death. According to André Vauchez, H. was the first lay saint of non-noble birth to be accorded papal canonization. H. is a patron of the cities of Cremona and Modena. Here he is at right, after bishop St. Himerius and the Madonna Incoronata, in the loggia over the porch of Cremona's twelfth-/fourteenth-century cathedral:
http://tinyurl.com/2ss69g
Detail:
http://tinyurl.com/2tknql
The two flanking statues are attributed to Gano da Siena (Gano di Fazio; d. before 1318).
For context, the Italia nell'Arte Medievale page on this cathedral (yes, Italia nell'Arte medievale is back online!):
http://tinyurl.com/3b75al
And here is H. as depicted by the fifteenth-century Bolognese painter Pietro di Giovanni Lianori:
http://digilander.libero.it/gregduomocremona/immagini/omobono_lianori.jpg
H. is also the patron saint of tailors. Here are some exterior views of the now deconsecrated twelfth-century church at Catanzaro (CZ) in Calabria dedicated to H. by the tailors' guild:
http://www.mycatanzaro.it/galleria/moderne/img51.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/2n4elp
6) Donatus of Montevergine (d. 1219). Today's less well known saint of the Regno was an energetic abbot of Montevergine (in today's Avellino province of Campania), where he is celebrated in conjunction with a number of the monastery's other abbots. From at least the sixteenth century until 1836 he was venerated as the patron saint of his reputed home town, Acerno (SA; also in Campania). Acerno's originally fifteenth-century cathedral of San Donato was once dedicated to him. Both the dedication and the patronal designation now honor St. Donatus of Arezzo. The cathedral, rebuilt in the later sixteenth century, still shows much of its predecessor's late medieval plan. Plans and views from its latest restoration are here:
http://tinyurl.com/6j32lx
D. has yet to grace the pages of the RM.
Best,
John Dillon
(Brice, Homobonus of Cremona, and Donatus of Montevergine lightly revised from last year's post)
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